Ethics

• Religious education
• Voortgezet speciaal onderwijs
• Leerroute 4

Year 4

Ethics

Euthanasia

Buddhism

Philosophy (God)

Exploring ethics

Part 1: What is ethics

1) What is ethics?

2) What does it do?

3) What questions does it ask?

4) What are values?

5) What is a principle?

Answers

1. A tool to help you create the difference between a good action and a bad one.
2.  Ethics is the practice of making conscious, precise and accurate judgements about how we should live and act.
3. What should we do? How should we live? What makes our actions worth living?

Answers

4) Values tell us what’s good – they’re the things we strive for, desire and seek to protect.

5) Principles tell us what’s right – outlining how we may or may not achieve our values.

Ethics	Principles	Purpose
What is good?	What is right?	What is meaningful?

Homework

Check the values from activity 2: Trading Values Game cards. Underline the unfamiliar ones and look them up.

Connecting values to items

Look at the cover of the hand-out. Try to find a value with each of the items f.i. 

Playstation controller	Lipstick
Trophy	Coins
Scales	Wedding rings
Mobile phone	Dumbell
The Bible	Appealbox
Pacifier (speen/fiep)	Keys

Homework

Read chapter 2.1. What is ethics? Do q 1 u/t 4.

Answers 2.1.

1. Morality = people's principles or views on right and wrong. Might be influenced by religion, family, friends or society.

2. If morality were innate you would expect more similarity. People don't have the same norms and values.

3. People are born with certain innate tendencies> a desire to survive and pass on genes.

answers

4. 

Absolutism = the view that certain actions are inherently        good or bad

Relativism = the view that whether an action is good or bad depends on the situation

Absolutism is more black and white, relativism is more flexible.

Cultural Differences

Every country has its own cultural traditions and customs. 

1) Mention three specifically Dutch traditions/customs.

2) Which tradition is really special to you?

3)  Did you notice a difference in culture/ customs while living/visiting a different country? Give an example.

Dutch traditions and customs

• Sinterklaas (pepernoten)
• Carnaval
• Kaasmarkt in Gouda
• Congratulating everybody at a birthday party instead of just the person who's actual birthday it is
• (kring) zit- verjaardag
• slootje - springen

Dutch

• being punctual, planning everything in advance 
• de friettent - frietkot ..  basically FRIET
• Prinsjesdag
• Koningsdag/ Vrijmarkt
  
• Swearing with diseases
• 3 koningen
• cycling 

Special to us

• Carnaval is special, you celebrate it with everyone 
• X-mas (eating with grandparents)
• Sinterklaas, enjoy an evening as a family with everybody happy opening presents
• Pepernoten bakken
• As a child it was just very magical I wish i could go back

Other countries

• In Switzerland, they don't talk to you
• People in Nepal don't say hi either, they look at the ground
• Clothing is different in Italy, I wear short some of them where speedo's with a hoody
• In France and Spain they close stores at midday (siësta) because of the heat
• They eat dinner a lot later and the food is different as well

other countries

• one kiss, three kisses, hugging
• NL-handshake 
• People in Croatia do not tend to be that punctual
• Belgian fries/ US junkfood
• Chinese firework shows / Chinese New Year / Moon festival
• Mexican x-mas is a much bigger event
• Chinese people tend to be more conservative

other countries

• drinking beer at 11.00 o'clock in Germany
• shops which are closed on Sunday
• Irish people don't just leave like we do they stay longer out of politeness
• no pancakes for dinner
• in Thailand, you have to dress more appropriately 
• Turkish praying traditions

Activity 1: Setting your goals

Read carefully what you need to do in activity one. You get an entire lesson to work on it and save it for your first PA.

The Moral Questionnaire (page 12)

Is the action:'

a) Morally good

b) Morally bad

c) Morally neutral

2. 3. Are goodness and pleasure the same

1. Utilitarianism = the theory that the best action in any situation is the one that creates the greatest amount of pleasure or good for the greatest number.

2. You can measure the morality of an action by subtracting the amount of pain an action could create from the amount of pleasure it might cause.

2.3. answers

3. Because it was based on radical equality. Everyone's happiness is equally important. Wealth or place in society is not relevant. Democracy works with this same point of view.

4. 

• Happiness is difficult to measure, it depends on the individual.
• You can't predict the future

2.3. answers

• Calculating the outcome in an urgent situation might take too long 
• The numbers game might come at the cost of an individual or a minority group

2.4. What should we do with the runaway train?

2. To check the consistency of our morality. Ethical theories solely based on consequences are flawed.

3. 

• Who is responsible in case of an accident? Driver/programmer/company?
• How does the program decide what to do in certain conditions?

Motivism

A good action is an action when it’s done with the best intentions in mind (good motives).

Exp. KANT’s theory of ethics

1) Do your duty

2) Don’t follow your urges; do what’s best for all

3) Human dignity is the most important value

4) Golden Rule; treat other people in the same way as you want to be treated yourself